Ex lads’ mag chief: ‘Porn most pernicious threat facing kids’

A former lads’ mag editor has warned that “an entire generation’s sexuality has been hijacked by grotesque online porn”.

Martin Daubney edited Loaded magazine from 2003 to 2010 and was often accused of being a “soft pornographer” due to the publication’s lewd content.

But Mr Daubney, who will present a new Channel 4 documentary called Porn On The Brain, said what he discovered during filming left him “truly shocked and saddened”.

Parents

He said children had distorted expectations of sex and relationships due to what they had seen in online porn.

Mr Daubney challenged the view that more sex education and better online blocks would be enough to protect children, and asserted that it was ultimately a parent’s responsibility to protect their children.

After a visit to a school Mr Daubney said he was shocked at the “children’s extensive knowledge of porn terms” which even “superseded that of every adult in the room”.

Distorted

He said, “what’s now considered ‘normal’ by under-18s is an entirely distorted view of intercourse and the way relationships should be conducted.

“It seemed as if the children’s entire expectation of sex had been defined by what they see in online porn.”

Mr Daubney said the children he interviewed were “balanced, smart and savvy” and the most academically gifted and sporting in the school. He stated: “They came from ordinary, hard-working households. This was not ‘Broken Britain'”.

Facebook

He was surprised to hear that many of the children were accessing porn via popular social networking sites such as Facebook.

The documentary revealed “that there were many young lives seriously blighted by an excessive, unhealthy relationship with pornography that can begin when they are as young as 12.

“We learned that some had lost their jobs, others had broken relationships, failed exams, or got into serious debt through using porn”, Mr Daubney said.

Shame

Last year Mr Daubney said becoming a father and turning 40 radically changed the way he looked at things.

He spoke of his shame for defending the publication which he now believes encouraged young men to access hard core pornography.